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apostle due weight and influence. Were we to say, the fpirit of infpiration fo adapted itfelf to the actual ideas and opinions of the facred writer, as to infpire him with no others but thofe which he really felt and thought, only perhaps giving them the moft fuitable expreffions; it might be answered: where then was the neceffity of his being infpired, to fay what he might have faid without infpiration, and which, if his feelings and notions were true and juft, he must have expreffed truly in the fimple, artless lan

guage of the heart? This infpiration which you fuppofe, was unneceffary, of no ufe, and gives the whole a disadvantageous afpect. It was ufelefs, fince to be convinced that what he recommends is true, godly, and chriftian, I need only perceive its perfect confonance to the doctrines and precepts of Chrift, without its being neceffary to fuppofe that it was divinely infpired for my farther conviction. To be affured, however, that it is poffible for me to attain fuch exalted notions, and to be inftigated to endeavour after fuch virtue, it is of much importance to me to know how much of this virtue Paul himself poffeffed; of which nothing can fo well and fully convince me as his own expreffions.

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If it be admitted, then, that the difcourfes of the apostles have gained in perfpicuity, precifion, and certainty, by an immediate inspiration throughout, they must on the other hand have loft with respect to their power of moving and edifying. The lofs is certain; but that they have gained may be difputed. For the meffengers of God have ever fpoken a language exhibiting all thofe faults and unavoidable imperfections which human language cannot be without, if it be intelligible, inftructive, and efficient. It is faid, that a greater degree of certainty arifes from the belief, that every word comes immediately from God. But might we not have a fufficient degree of certainty, without fuppofing an immediate inspiration

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infpiration of every thing they wrote? If we conceive, that the facred writers had the requifite fincerity and abilities to bear teftimony of Jefus and his doctrines, and that as often as they lay claim to a divine revelation, or inftruction from Chrift, they actually received this revelation or inftruction, and have delivered it faithfully and accurately, I know not what more a reasonable man can require to edify by their writings, and to be convinced, that he actually reads divine truths. Should any doubts remain of their having properly applied the divine revelations and inftructions, with which they were honoured, and of their having deduced just confequences from them, unmixed with any falfe notions, let us only do what they themfelves require of their readers and hearers: let us prove their writings by the teft of the divine truths which they have delivered. Let us examine whether their conceptions of the doctrines of chriftianity agree with the word of the Lord, and with the revelations to which they appeal. Let us inquire whether they adhere to the divine truth in their explanations and developement of it, and whether their confequences be really valid, and deducible from it. If we find this, and no one has hitherto proved the contrary, we fhould be unreafonable and unjuft not to be fatisfied with the degree and kind of divine infpiration here admitted. Let us duly confider, that, were the facred writers perfectly fincere and faithful in what they deliver, their writings must have a fufficient degree of credibility for every man, finçe they were placed by God in circumstances fo extraordinarily favourable, that they could and must teach the truths of the gofpel with fufficient perfection. Thus their integrity, and love of truth, are the grand points on which the credit to be given to their doctrines depends. Were they fincere, we may be certain, without fuppofing all their words to have been immediately infpired, that their Q9 3 writings

writings difplay the true fpirit of christianity and revelation. If, however, they were wanting in love. of truth and integrity, or we be not fully affured they were not, our belief of an immediate inspiration cannot fatisfy or confirm us: for this belief must be founded on their own affertion and teftimony, which, if we doubt their truth and fincerity, can be of no weight. Hence we fee how important and indifpenfable integrity and a love of truth, which, with the neceffary abilities, conftitute what we term fidem bumanam, are for a facred writer, whether of hiftory, doctrines, or precepts, if he would actually obtain our trust and confidence.

PROP. XXVIII. p. 142.
On Miracles.

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MIRACLES Conftitute an important object of inquiry, both to the defenders and opponents of the chriftian revelation. In modern times, more especially, their nature and demonftrability have been carefully investigated, and endeavours have been used to fupport them against the objections of fceptics and unbelievers. Much, however, as has been written on both fides of the question, what our author has advanced in his XXVIIIth propofition, in explanation and defence of miracles, feems to me perfectly juft, and in fome measure new. His ideas on the fubject he has given, as ufual, with brevity. I am perfuaded, therefore, that a more ample developement of them will not be without use.

In the first place it may be asked: are miracles fo far fupernatural as to be actually repugnant to the nature of things, and true and proper exceptions to the general plan of God, according to which he governs the world, and effects his purposes in it;

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or are they fupernatural only fo far as, from our knowledge and views of the nature of things, their powers, and laws of action, they appear to us to be deviations from the general fcheme of providence, and contradictory to nature? A thorough examination of this question will, I believe, throw great light on the subject of miracles.

The first notion of a miracle that ftrikes our minds is, that it is an extraordinary and unufual occurrence, deviating from general experience. This we may admit, at least as a definition of the term. But if we bring miracles in proof of a divine miffion, or a more immediate revelation, the question is, whether miracles, confidered as merely extraordinary and unusual occurrences, be fufficient to ftamp credit on a meffenger afferted to be from God, or it be neceffary, to the full conviction of those to whom he is fent, that they difcover in his works a power far beyond that of nature. They who confine the idea. of a miracle merely to the unusual and extraordinary, to require nothing more to the demonstrability of miracles, maintain that the circumstance of a very unusual occurrence, brought as a proof of a divine miffion, effected at the nod and command of the divine meffenger, exactly at the time, and under fuch circumftances that it cannot be attributed to the apparently producing cause, is a fufficient demonstration, that the Lord of nature declares himself thereby. This notion of miracles fets afide the objection made by many to the immediate interpofition of God, that, if they be not contradictions to the general scheme of providence, they muft be confidered as "alterations and improvements in it. And these would more eafily reconcile themfelves to miracles, were they confidered merely as extraordinary effects, produced in ways hidden from us though natural, and by infcrutable means, but fo wifely ordered by providence, as to confirm our belief in new inftructions

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from God, in an unequivocal manner. Bonnet, in his philofophical inquiry into the arguments for christianity, has lately confidered miracles in this light. According to him, they are occurrences which were included in the established principles of nature, or founded on the active powers of the world, but fo conftituted as in appearance not to arife from the ufual order of things. This is, in his opinion, clear and evident, when they are not so related to the apparent means employed to produce them, that we may deem thofe means their real effective causes. If fight be given to one born blind, by touching his eyes, and commanding him to fee; if a dead body, that has lain fome days in the grave, and has already begun to corrupt, be reftored to life, after a prayer to God, and the words, I fay unto thee, arife: a miracle performed under fuch circumftances is a decifive declaration of the Lord of nature in behalf of him who performs it. I cannot perceive, that this explanation leffens the demonftrability of miracles. So far as the effect is no way connected with the powers and means employed in producing it, or proportionate to them, and prefupposes a fecret artful capacity in the fcheme of the world, which can be employed or perceived by no one but the Creator and Ruler of the whole, the miracle is a proof of the hand of God, and particularly a valid credential for the performer, when he exprefsly announces himself as a meffenger from God, performs the miracle itself in confirmation of the truth of his embaffy and doctrines, and calls upon God in prayer to grant him the neceffary power.

What Hartley advances as conjectural agrees, for the most part, with this notion of miracles. Amongst the inftrumental powers by which miracles may be produced he reckons fuperior fpirits, and influences from above, confidering the whole fpiritual world in fuch a connection, that one part is an inftrument to

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